Vehicle periphery information management device

ABSTRACT

Provided is a vehicle periphery information management device that can reduce the load on a network and the processing load on the acquisition side. The vehicle periphery information management device includes: a data acquisition unit that acquires a plurality of pieces of external environment information data in the periphery of the vehicle; and a data selection unit that selects a portion of the plurality of pieces of external environment information data acquired by the data acquisition unit and outputs the selected data to an external unit on the basis of a prescribed position from the vehicle.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a vehicle periphery informationmanagement device that acquires and manages information on the peripheryof a vehicle and provides the information externally.

BACKGROUND ART

Recently, for automatic drive control regarded as important, a pluralityof information acquisition devices is required to be mounted on avehicle in order to secure the entire circumference of the vehicle.Information acquired from the information acquisition devices that havebeen mounted, widely covers, for example, detected information in anexternal environment recognition sensor, map information, andvehicle-to-vehicle communication information, so that the amount ofinformation handled in vehicle control increases. Therefore, the load onan in-vehicle network and the processing load of the control arepredicted to increase, and thus a device capable of effectively managingthe information and providing the information, is required.

As an exemplary system that reduces the load on the in-vehicle network,for example, PTL 1 discloses that a plurality of in-vehicle networks isprovided with respective unification ECUs and the unification ECUs eachselect and transmit necessary information for the other networks frominformation that has been received, so that the amount of data isoptimized. In PTL 1, the networks include a vehicle motion systemmanaging, for example, brakes, steering, and ACC control, a power trainsystem managing, for example, an engine and a transmission, and anelectrical power system managing, for example, a battery and analternator, so that the information on the vehicle is effectivelyreceived and transmitted between the systems.

CITATION LIST Patent Literature

PTL 1: JP 2004-136816 A

SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem

Object recognition information to be acquired increases in a travelsituation, for example, in a case where a vehicle periphery environmentis congested. Therefore, as described above, since the plurality ofinformation acquisition devices is mounted for the automatic drivecontrol, the amount of data provided from the information acquisitiondevices increases in proportion to, for example, object information androad sign information that have been recognized. In PTL 1, it is notassumed that the amount of information increases in accordance with atravel situation, and the amount of data to be transmitted increases asthe number of objects or road signs to be recognized increases.Therefore, there is a problem that the load on a network and theprocessing load on the information acquisition side, increase.

An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle peripheryinformation management device capable of inhibiting the load of anetwork and the processing load on the acquisition side.

Solution to Problem

In order to solve the problem, the vehicle periphery informationmanagement device according to the present invention includes: forexample, a data integration unit configured to integrate vehicleperiphery environment information that has been acquired; and a filterunit configured to filter data integrated by the data integration unit.The filter unit performs processing of removing periphery environmentinformation data present in a region at more than a predetermineddistance from a vehicle, from the data that has been integrated.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

According to the present invention, the vehicle periphery informationmanagement device that inhibits the load of the network and theprocessing load on the acquisition side, can be provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exemplary configuration of an in-vehicle system with avehicle periphery information management device according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an exemplary recognition range in an externalenvironment according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of an exemplary processing block of a dataintegration unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of an exemplary processing block of a filterparameter determination unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of an exemplary processing block of a travelableregion determination unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of travelable region calculation according to thepresent invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for describing an exemplary travel region to besearched according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for FIGS. 8A and 8B are diagrams describingexemplary adjacent traffic lane movability determination according tothe present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for describing a travelable region scene 1 accordingto the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for describing a travelable region adjacencyinformation scene 1 according to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for describing a travelable region scene 2according to the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram for describing a travelable region adjacencyinformation scene 2 according to the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram for describing a travelable region adjacencyinformation scene 3 according to the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a table of an exemplary periphery-information-based filtercycle list.

FIG. 15 is a table of an exemplary periphery-information-baseddata-to-be-filtered list.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of filter parameter calculation according to thepresent invention.

FIGS. 17A and 17B are diagrams describing the comparison betweencongested traveling and normal traveling according to the presentinvention.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below withreference to the drawings.

First Embodiment

FIG. 1 illustrates the configuration of a vehicle periphery informationmanagement device 01, the internal functions thereof, informationacquisition devices, and information provision destinations, in avehicle. The vehicle periphery information management device 01receives, through an input communication network 12, informationindicating the behavior of the vehicle, acquired from a vehicle behaviorrecognition sensor 02, information on, for example, anobject/obstruction and a road sign in an external environment, acquiredfrom an external environment recognition sensor 03, information on, forexample, a road shape and a road sign, acquired from a map 04, andvehicle position information acquired from GPS 05, included in theinformation acquisition devices, so as to perform management in anunificatory manner. The information managed by the vehicle peripheryinformation management device 01, is narrowed down, in data, to minimuminformation necessary for automatic drive control ECU 06, an actuationECU 07, and a display ECU 08, included in the information provisiondestinations, each to perform the corresponding processing, so that theminimum information is transmitted through an output communicationnetwork 13.

The vehicle behavior recognition sensor 02 includes, for example, agyroscope sensor, a wheel speed sensor, a steering angle sensor, and anacceleration sensor, mounted on the vehicle, and a yaw rate, wheelspeed, a steering angle, and acceleration, indicating the behavior ofthe vehicle, can be acquired by the respective sensors.

The external environment recognition sensor 03 includes sensors, such asa camera and radar, and can acquire the relative position and state ofan object, an obstruction, or a road sign on the periphery of thevehicle.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the vehicle F01 is equipped with rear radarF02, an entire circumferential camera F03, a front camera F04, and frontradar F05, and includes a detection system capable of detectinginformation on the entire circumference.

The amount of acquirable information increases as the number of sensorsincluded in the external environment recognition sensor 03 to be mountedincreases, so that a reduction effect in data to be transmitted to thenetwork, improves. However, the external environment recognition sensoris not necessarily mounted over the entire circumference. For example,in the configuration of the single front camera F04, the amount ofacquirable data increases as the number of objects to be recognizedincreases. Thus, a travelable region only ahead is determined so thatthe amount of data to be transmitted to the network can be reduced.Vehicle-to-vehicle communication and road-to-vehicle communication maybe also included in the configuration in addition to the externalenvironment recognition sensor 03. In the vehicle-to-vehiclecommunication, for example, a yaw rate, a steering angle, speed,acceleration, a brake lamp state, and an indicator state, indicating thebehavior of a different vehicle, can be wirelessly acquired. In theroad-to-vehicle communication, the position and state of a road sign, asignal, or a different vehicle that has passed by, can be wirelesslyacquired through a roadside device provided on a road.

The map 04 distributes road information in a range of several kilometerson the periphery of the vehicle. Examples of the road information to bedistributed, include speed limit information, road information on thecurvature of a road, the gradient of the road, the width of the road,the number of traffic lanes, the position of a branch, the position ofmerging, and the position of a tollgate.

The GPS 05 represents a GPS receiver that receives a signal from asatellite in the sky, and can acquire the position of the vehicle.Besides, for example, the orientation, the speed, the altitude of thevehicle can be acquired as additional information.

The input communication network 12 and the output communication network13 each receive and transmit the information through, for example, acontroller area network (CAN) being a network typically used in anin-vehicle system, serial communication between CPUs, Ethernet(registered trademark) to be predicted to spread in the future, orwireless communication.

The automatic drive control ECU 06 has a function in which the steering,the brake, and the accelerator of the vehicle are automaticallycontrolled to cause the vehicle to reach the position of a destination.The automatic drive control may be fully automatic to require nooperations of a driver or may be semiautomatic to automatically controla part of the operations.

The actuation ECU 07 controls the travel stability of the vehicle to beretained, similarly to traction control or an anti-lock braking system.

The display ECU 08 includes an ECU for displaying information on theperiphery of the vehicle, onto, for example, a navigation system or ameter panel. According to the present invention, the three ECUs of theautomatic drive control ECU 06, the actuation ECU 07, and the displayECU 08 have been exemplified for a user of the information in thevehicle periphery information management device 01, but may be varied inaccordance with a utilization purpose or the configuration of thevehicle.

The vehicle periphery information management device 01 includes a dataintegration unit (hereinafter, also referred to as a data acquisitionunit) 09 and a data selection unit 14. The data selection unit 14includes a filter parameter determination unit 10 and an output datafilter unit 11. The filter parameter determination unit 10, the outputdata unit 11, and the data integration unit 09 acquire vehicle behaviorinformation, external environment recognition information, mapinformation, and vehicle position information acquired from the vehiclebehavior recognition sensor 02, the external environment recognitionsensor 03, the map 04, and the GPS 05, respectively, through the inputcommunication network 12. Since acquiring the information from thevarious information acquisition devices, the data integration unit 09performs integration into vehicle information and vehicle peripheryinformation, in consideration of the characteristics of each of theinformation acquisition devices. The data integration unit 09 acts aspreprocessing for performing the filter parameter determination unit 10and the output data filter unit 11, and is a constituent element basedon the premise that the consistency of data from the plurality ofinformation acquisition devices operating in asynchronization is ensuredand the output data filter unit performs processing of reducing theamount of data. The filter parameter determination unit 10 calculates aparameter regarding how filtering is performed to the vehicle peripheryinformation that has been integrated and how data to be transmitted isreduced. The output data filter unit 11 filters the vehicle peripheryinformation, on the basis of the filter parameter calculated by thefilter parameter determination unit 10, so as to transmit the vehicleperiphery information including the data to be transmitted, reduced,after the filter, to the output communication network 13.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary processing block of the data integrationunit 09.

The data integration unit 09 includes a coordinate conversion processingunit 20, a synchronization processing unit 21, an object groupingprocessing unit 22, an object tracking processing unit 23, and an objecttraffic lane position determination unit 24. As inputs to the dataintegration unit 09, the respective pieces of information from thevehicle behavior recognition sensor 02, the external environmentrecognition sensor 03, the map 04, and the GPS 05, are handled. Thecoordinate conversion processing unit 20 and the synchronizationprocessing unit 21 are required to generate the vehicle information andthe vehicle periphery information ensuring the consistency of therespective pieces of information input from the plurality of informationacquisition devices. The object grouping processing unit 22 and theobject tracking processing unit 23 are required to cause information onrespective objects acquired from the plurality of informationacquisition devices, to be consistent information bearing comparisonwith the real world. The object traffic lane position determination unit24 is required to calculate the position of an object ensuring theconsistency in the objects and traffic lane information from the map.

For the inputs to be received by the data integration unit 09, it isconsidered that respective coordinate systems handled by the informationacquisition devices are different from each other. For example, for thewheel speed sensor being one sensor in the vehicle behavior recognitionsensor 02, a coordinate system to be handled is predicted being aCartesian coordinate system centering on the position of each of thefour wheels. For the millimeter-wave radar for front collisionavoidance, being one sensor in the external environment recognitionsensor 03, a coordinate system to be handled is predicted being aCartesian coordinate system centering on the position of the head of thevehicle, the Cartesian coordinate system facing in the travel directionof the vehicle. It is predicted that a geodetic coordinate system isused for the coordinate system handled by the map 04 and a position onthe earth is indicated in latitude and longitude. In order to absorb thedifference between the coordinate systems, the coordinate conversionprocessing 20 performs conversion into one coordinate system beingrepresentative, and the information that has been converted is handledin the subsequent processing. For example, a coordinate system includinga Cartesian coordinate system having the center of the vehicle as acriterion, may be provided as a representative. The conversion into theone coordinate system being representative, requires no coordinateconversion processing to be performed in accordance with thecharacteristics of the information acquisition devices every time theinformation in the external environment recognition sensor 03 is linkedwith the information in the map 04 in the subsequent processing.

Next, the synchronization processing unit 21 corrects and synchronizesthe acquisition time lags between respective pieces of data acquiredfrom the information acquisition devices. In the in-vehicle system, eachof the information acquisition devices operates asynchronously and has adifference, for example, in the transmission cycle of data. Therefore,for example, when the position information on an object acquired fromeach of the information acquisition devices, is used remaining intact,the relative position gaps occur between the respective objects detectedby the information acquisition devices, and thus a difference occurs inthe relative positional relationship between the information in thevehicle periphery information management device and the object in thereal world. As a result, the risk of collision increases to cause dangerin automatic driving that determines and controls the positionalrelationship between a plurality of vehicles.

In a case where the respective objects detected by the informationacquisition devices are the same in the real world, the object groupingprocessing unit 22 determines the objects as identical. When the numberof sensors in the external environment recognition sensor 03 mounted onthe vehicle increases, the individual sensors in the externalenvironment recognition sensor 03 may detect the same region. Forexample, the rear radar F02, the entire circumferential camera F03, thefront camera F04, and the front radar F05 detect respective objects inoverlapped regions F06 in an exemplary external environment recognitionrange of FIG. 2. For this configuration, if the vehicle peripheryinformation management device transmits the objects as different to theautomatic drive control ECU 06 regardless of the objects identical inthe real world, predicting a move and performing control are originallyat least required to one object, but the moves of the plurality ofobjects must be predicted so that unnecessary processing occurs.Therefore, if respective objects detected by different sensors in theexternal environment recognition sensor are identical, there is a needto perform grouping to the objects as identical and to transmit theobjects as identical to the control.

The object tracking processing unit 23 acts as processing of continuingto recognize an object as the same even when the object passes throughthe respective recognition range boundaries of the informationacquisition devices. With a description having the exemplary externalenvironment recognition range of FIG. 2, in a situation in which adifferent vehicle overtakes from the right rear of the vehicle F01, thedifferent vehicle is first detected at the right rear of the rear radarF02, and then the recognition is switched from the right rear of therear radar F02 to the right side of the entire circumferential cameraF03 as the different vehicle moves to the right side of the vehicle. Inthis case, in a case where viewed from the rear radar F02 that hasperformed the first detection, when the different vehicle deviates fromthe recognition range of the right rear of the rear radar F02,information on the different vehicle in the rear radar F02 isinterrupted. Instead, since the different vehicle moves to the rightside of the entire circumferential camera F03, the entirecircumferential camera F03 outputs the interrupted information on thedifferent vehicle in the rear radar F02. In this manner, with eveninformation on an object interrupted when viewed from each of theinformation acquisition devices, the object tracking processing 23handles the objects as identical. Without the processing, when thevehicle periphery information management device makes a switch to theentire circumferential camera F03 and performs recognition as adifferent object despite the objects identical in the real world, theobject to which attention has been paid, disappears and it looks as if anew object appears, as data. Therefore, the control cannot continue tothe objects identical, on the control side, and thus the precision ofobject behavior prediction degrades and there is a risk that thereliability of the control degrades. According to the presentembodiment, when the continuity of data of an object/obstruction islost, the determination precision of a travelable region calculated fromthe positional relationship with the object/obstruction, degrades andthe data reduction effect may decrease. Therefore, even when detectionis performed by different sensors in the external environmentrecognition sensor, the objects may be regarded as identical in thetracking processing so as to be transmitted to the control.

The object traffic lane position determination unit 24 determines inwhich traffic lane on the road the object/obstruction detected by eachof the information acquisition devices is present. According to thepresent embodiment, processing of calculating a travelable region pertraffic lane, is assumed in the following descriptions, and thus thereis a need to calculate in which traffic lane the object/obstructiondetected by each of the information acquisition devices is present.

The processing is performed to finally output the vehicle informationand the vehicle periphery information. The vehicle information hereincludes, for example, the vehicle position information, the speed, yawrate, steering angle, acceleration, indicator information, and brakelamp information of the vehicle. The vehicle periphery informationincludes, for example, the relative position, relative speed, and traveltraffic lane position of another vehicle, a pedestrian, or a two-wheeledvehicle present on the periphery of the vehicle. Road information, signinformation, and signal information present on the periphery of thevehicle are also included.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary processing block of the filter parameterdetermination unit 10.

The filter parameter determination unit 10 includes a travelable regiondetermination unit 30, a travelable region adjacent peripheryinformation determination unit 31, a periphery information determinationunit 32 not for travelable region adjacent periphery information, and afilter parameter integration unit 33. First, the travelable regiondetermination unit 30 calculates a travelable region with, as an input,the vehicle periphery information from the data integration unit 09. Thetravelable region determination unit 30 has a function of calculating aregion in which the vehicle can travel, on the basis of the vehicleperiphery information, and determines whether the vehicle can move tothe region. According to the present embodiment, for the determinationof the movability, the movability is basically determined in a casewhere an event in which a different object/obstruction obstructs thetravel of the vehicle, does not happen in a region to which the vehiclemoves. With the travelable region output from the travelable regiondetermination unit 30 and the vehicle periphery information from thedata integration unit 09, the travelable region adjacent peripheryinformation determination unit 31 calculates a travelable regionadjacency information list. The travelable region adjacency informationlist includes information listing, for example, objects/obstructionsthat can immediately enter the travelable region. That is, theinformation indicates immediately approachability to the vehicle, andhas high priority as information in consideration of a safety aspect.With the travelable region adjacency information list output from thetravelable region adjacent periphery information determination unit 31and the vehicle periphery information from the data integration unit 09,the periphery information determination unit 32 not for the travelableregion adjacent periphery information calculates aninformation-to-be-filtered list. The information-to-be-filtered listincludes information listing, for example, objects/obstructions andsigns that have not been registered in the travelable region adjacencyinformation list but have been recognized by the external environmentrecognition sensor and the map. That is, the information indicatesimmediately inapproachability to the vehicle, and has low priority asinformation in consideration of the safety aspect. With theinformation-to-be-filtered list output from the periphery informationdetermination unit 32 not for the travelable region adjacent peripheryinformation, a periphery-information-based filter cycle list 34, and aperiphery-information-based data-to-be-filtered list 35, the filterparameter integration unit integrates parameters so as to make an outputto the output data filter unit. A filter parameter that has beencalculated, is used for the filter processing in the output data filterunit 11. The periphery-information-based filter cycle list 34 and theperiphery-information-based data-to-be-filtered list 35 may bepreviously statically determined by a system designer or may beexternally received and set as dynamical parameters. For example, in acase where the external reception is performed, a method of collectingrespective parameters from the automatic drive control ECU 06, theactuation ECU 07, and the display ECU 08 of FIG. 1, is considered.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary processing block of the travelableregion determination unit 30.

The travelable region determination unit 30 includes atravel-region-to-be-searched calculation unit 40 and a travelable regioncalculation unit 41. The travel-region-to-be-searched calculation unit40 receives a front maximum detection distance 42, a rear maximumdetection distance 43, and an accessible traffic lane count 44 that havebeen previously set, and then outputs a travel region to be searched tothe travelable region calculation unit 41. The travel region to besearched includes a region to be searched of a peripheryobject/obstruction in calculating the travelable region below, and, inthis case, a region detected by the external environment recognitionsensor is exemplarily to be searched. Therefore, the front maximumdetection distance 42 and the rear maximum detection distance 43 areused as inputs. The accessible traffic lane count 44 is set to a fixedvalue since the number of traffic lanes to which the vehicle canimmediately move, is not so large. The travelable region calculationunit 41 receives the travel region to be searched calculated by thetravel-region-to-be-searched calculation unit 40, vehicle peripherytraffic lane information, the distance from the vehicle to the peripheryobject/obstruction, and the traffic lane position of the peripheryobject/obstruction, so as to output the travelable region. FIG. 7illustrates a diagram for describing the travel region to be searched.FIG. 7 illustrates the vehicle F10, traffic lanes F11, anobject/obstruction F12 (a vehicle not being the vehicle F10) detected bythe external environment recognition sensor, on the periphery of thevehicle, an external environment recognition sensor detection regionF13, and the travel region to be searched F14. The travel region to besearched F14 is calculated with the front maximum detection distance F15and the rear maximum detection distance F16 detected in the externalenvironment recognition sensor detection region F13, and the accessibletraffic lane count F17 that has been previously set. Here, theaccessible traffic lane count F17 exemplarily expresses three trafficlanes of the left traffic lane and the right traffic lane to which thevehicle can immediately move, and the travel traffic lane of thevehicle. With the vehicle F10 centered, the three traffic lanes of theaccessible traffic lane count F17 up to the front maximum detectiondistance F15 are to be searched in the front, and the three trafficlanes of the accessible traffic lane count F17 up to the rear maximumdetection distance F16 are to be searched in the rear. In a case wherethe vehicle is in the right end traffic lane, two traffic lanes of thetravel traffic lane of the vehicle and the left traffic lane of thevehicle are required at least to be searched.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary flowchart of the travelable regioncalculation unit 41.

First, the travel-region-to-be-searched calculation unit 40 illustratedin FIG. 5 calculates the travel region to be searched, at S01.

Next, one traffic lane is selected from the traffic lanes in the travelregion to be searched, at S02. In the example of FIG. 7, the threetraffic lanes are provided at a maximum, and thus one traffic lane isselected therefrom and the subsequent set of processing S03 to S15 isperformed. The set of processing S03 to S15 is repeated until all thethree traffic lanes are processed. The set of processing S03 to S15includes two pieces of processing, and a set of processing S05 to S09acts as processing of calculating the travelable region ahead of thevehicle and a set of processing S10 to 14 acts as processing ofcalculating the travelable region behind the vehicle.

Next, in a case where the traffic lane that has been selected is anadjacent traffic lane to the vehicle (the left traffic lane or the righttraffic lane), it is determined whether the vehicle can move to theadjacent traffic lane, at S03. The determination of whether the vehiclecan move to the adjacent traffic lane, will be described with exemplaryadjacent traffic lane movability determination of FIG. 8. For themovability of the vehicle F20 of FIG. 8(a) to the right traffic lane, itis determined whether a different vehicle F21 belongs to a movabilityregion F25 even in a small degree, and non-movability is determined in acase where belonging to the movability region F25 even in the smalldegree. For FIG. 8(a), the different vehicle F21 belongs to themovability region F25 so that non-movability is determined. For FIG.8(b), a different vehicle F22 does not belong to the movability regionF25 so that movability is determined. The longitudinal width of themovability region F25 is expressed as a region including a front/rearmargin distance F24 added to the entire vehicle length F23 of thevehicle F20 illustrated in FIG. 8(a). The width of the traffic lane isused for the lateral width of the movability region F25. Even when aregion in size the same as the entire vehicle length F23 is vacant, amove cannot be made in practice and there is a need to keep a degree ofinter-vehicular distance. Thus, the front and rear margin distance F24is defined in the adjacency movability determination. If the vehiclecannot move to the adjacent traffic lane, it is determined that notravelable region is in the traffic lane that has been selected, at S04.Exemplarily with a travelable region scene 1 of FIG. 9, since adifferent vehicle is present in the right traffic lane of the vehicle, atraffic lane F30 in the travel region to be searched F14 is excludedfrom the travelable region, at S04. In this manner, the reason why thetraffic lane to which the vehicle cannot immediately move is excludedfrom the travelable region, is that a region to which no move can bemade is to be included in the travelable region if the traffic lane towhich the vehicle cannot immediately move is included in the travelableregion, and the reduction effect of the amount of data to be transmitteddecreases.

Next, in a case where the vehicle can move to the adjacent traffic lane,it is determined whether a different object/obstruction is present aheadin the traffic lane that has been selected, at S05. In a case where noobject/obstruction is present, a distance to a differentobject/obstruction present in the adjacent traffic lane to the trafficlane that has been selected, is included in the travelable region, atS06. Exemplarily with a travelable region scene 2 of FIG. 11, since novehicle is present ahead in the right traffic lane of the vehicle, thetravelable region includes the front maximum detection distance of theright traffic lane, with simple consideration. Note that, with thisarrangement, the region to which no immediate move can be made, is alsoincluded in the travelable region and the reduction effect of the amountof data to be transmitted decreases. Thus, according to the presentembodiment, in a case where no different object/obstruction is presentahead in the right traffic lane that has been selected, the travelableregion F51 is set with a distance from a different object/obstructionF50 present in the left adjacent traffic lane (a differentobject/obstruction ahead of the vehicle) to the vehicle. In a case wherea different object/obstruction is present ahead, a distance to thenearest object/obstruction ahead in the traffic lane that has beenselected, is acquired at S07.

Next, it is determined whether the difference between the distanceacquired at S07 and the distance to the different object/obstructionnearest to the vehicle, present in the adjacent traffic lane, is acertain value or less, at S08. In a case where the difference is largerthan the certain value, the distance to the different object/obstructionpresent in the adjacent traffic lane to the traffic lane selected atS06, is included in the travelable region. As exemplarily illustrated ina travelable region adjacency information scene 3 of FIG. 13, in a casewhere the difference F73 in distance between a differentobject/obstruction F70 present ahead in the right traffic lane of thevehicle and a different object/obstruction F71 present ahead of thevehicle, is large, the travelable region in the right traffic lane ofthe vehicle practically includes a travelable region to which noimmediate move can be made. Thus, in this case, the travelable regionF72 is set with the distance to the different object/obstruction F71ahead of the vehicle. In a case where the distance F73 is the certainvalue or less, the distance from the vehicle to the differentobject/obstruction ahead, is included in the travelable region at S09.Exemplarily with the left traffic lane of the vehicle in the travelableregion scene 1 of FIG. 9, since the distance F34 between theobject/obstruction ahead of the vehicle and an object/obstruction aheadin the left traffic lane, is short, a distance to the nearestobject/obstruction ahead in the left traffic lane, is set to thetravelable region in the left traffic lane F31. Exemplarily with thetravel traffic lane of the vehicle, a distance to the nearestobject/obstruction ahead, is set to the travelable region in the traveltraffic lane F32.

A set of processing from S05 to S09 above is performed to the frontdirection of the vehicle, whereas a set of processing from S10 to S14 isperformed to the rear direction of the vehicle and it is determinedwhether an object/obstruction is present behind the vehicle in thetraffic lane that has been selected, at S10. In a case where noobject/obstruction is present, a distance to an object/obstructionpresent in the adjacent traffic lane to the traffic lane that has beenselected, is included in the travelable region at S11. In a case wherean object/obstruction is present, a distance to the nearest differentobject/obstruction behind the vehicle in the traffic lane that has beenselected, is acquired at S12. Next, it is determined whether thedifference between the distance that has been acquired and the distanceto the nearest different object/obstruction to the vehicle, present inthe adjacent traffic lane, is a certain value or less, at S13. In a casewhere the difference is larger than the certain value, the travelableregion is set at S11. In a case where the difference is the certainvalue or less, the distance to the different object/obstruction behindthe vehicle, is included in the travelable region at S14.

Next, it is determined whether the travelable region for each of thetraffic lanes has been calculated with a set of processing S02 to S14above, at S15, and if the calculation has not been completed, theprocessing is repeated from S02. If the calculation has been completed,the processing of calculating the travelable region finishes.

As a result of the processing in the flowchart of the travelable regioncalculation illustrated in FIG. 6, the travelable region F33 iscalculated exemplarily with the travelable region scene 1 of FIG. 9. Thetravelable region F52 is calculated exemplarily with the travelableregion scene 2 of FIG. 11.

The travelable region adjacent periphery information determination unit31 of FIG. 4, will be described.

When the travelable region scene 1 of FIG. 9 is applied to thetravelable region determination unit 30 of FIG. 4, the travelable regionF33 is acquired. The travelable region adjacent periphery informationindicates a region adjacent to the travelable region F33 of FIG. 9, andindicates a region F40 in the travelable region adjacency informationscene 1 of FIG. 10. The minimum longitudinal width F43 of the travelableregion adjacent region, may use the entire length of a differentobject/obstruction F41 or may be varied in accordance with the vehiclespeed of the different object/obstruction F41. The minimum lateral widthF44 thereof may use the entire width of the different object/obstructionF41 or may use the width of a traffic lane acquired from the map or acamera. Different objects/obstructions F41 positioned on the travelableregion adjacent region F40, are defined as the travelable regionadjacent periphery information. The travelable region adjacent peripheryinformation determination unit 31 outputs the travelable regionadjacency information list listing the plurality of differentobjects/obstructions. The travelable region adjacent region in thetravelable region adjacency information scene 2 of FIG. 12 is indicatedwith F60, to the travelable region F52 illustrated in the travelableregion scene 2 of FIG. 11. Similarly to the example of FIG. 10,different objects/obstructions F61 positioned on the region F60, areincluded in the travelable region adjacent periphery information, andthe plurality of different objects/obstructions are listed so as to beoutput to the periphery information determination unit 32 not for thetravelable region adjacent periphery information. As described above,since the different objects/obstructions allocated to the travelableregion adjacent periphery information, are adjacent to the travelableregion of the vehicle, the different objects/obstructions have highpossibility of immediately moving to the travelable region of thevehicle. The travelable region adjacent periphery information has highpriority as information to be provided, and thus providing detailedinformation on the position and behavior of each of theobjects/obstructions, to the user, is required.

The periphery information determination unit 32 not for the travelableregion adjacent periphery information of FIG. 4, will be described.

The periphery information determination unit 32 not for the travelableregion adjacent periphery information, outputs, as theinformation-to-be-filtered list, different objects/obstructions F42detected by the external environment recognition sensor, to the filterparameter integration unit 33, except the different objects/obstructionsF41 included in the travelable region adjacency information list,illustrated in FIG. 10. Similarly, in FIG. 12, as theinformation-to-be-filtered list, different objects/obstructions F62detected by the external environment recognition sensor, are output tothe filter parameter integration unit 33, except the differentobjects/obstructions F61 included in the travelable region adjacencyinformation list. The information-to-be-filtered list that has beenselected here, indicates the objects/obstructions that do notimmediately move to the travelable region of the vehicle, having lowpriority, differently from the objects/obstructions having highpriority, adjacent to the travelable region. Therefore, it can bepredicted that no large influence is exerted on the objects/obstructionsregistered in the information-to-be-filtered list even when data to beprovided to the user is reduced.

A method of calculating a parameter for filtering theinformation-to-be-filtered list by the filter parameter integration unit33 of FIG. 4, will be described.

With the information-to-be-filtered list from the periphery informationdetermination unit not for the travelable region adjacent peripheryinformation, the filter parameter integration unit 33 performsprocessing of selecting parameters to be filtered from theperiphery-information-based filter cycle list 34 and theperiphery-information-based data-to-be-filtered list 35. Theperiphery-information-based filter cycle list 34 includes a list forreducing the amount of data by temporal data decimation. Theperiphery-information-based data-to-be-filtered list 35 includes a listfor reducing the amount of data by quantitative data decimation.

First, an exemplary periphery-information-based filter cycle list willbe described with FIG. 14. In the periphery-information-based filtercycle list of FIG. 14, vehicle periphery information objectclassification includes a periphery three-dimensional object andperiphery road surface information. The periphery three-dimensionalobject includes, for example, an object, a signal, a sign, and a roadend. Furthermore, the object includes information on, for example, anobject ID, a relative position, a relative speed, a width, and a height.The signal includes information on, for example, a signal ID, aclassification, a relative position, and a state. In addition, the signand the road end each include detailed information. The periphery roadsurface information includes information on, for example, a lane markerand additional paint. Furthermore, the lane marker includes informationon, for example, a lane ID, a lane classification, a relative position,and a yaw angle. The additional paint includes, for example, a paint ID,a relative position, and a classification. Respective cycles in whichthe descriptions are transmitted, are defined in the present list. Here,a transmission cycle in a default and a cycle in filtering, are defined.Basically, the transmission cycle in the default, is set to a valuefaster than that of the cycle in the filtering, and the transmissioncycle in the default is allocated to the information in the travelableregion adjacent periphery information list. In contrast, the cycle inthe filtering is allocated to the information-to-be-filtered list beingan object of which data to be transmitted is desirably reduced, so thatthe amount of data to be transmitted within a certain period isinhibited. For example, taking the relative position of the object inthe periphery three-dimensional object as an example, a default cycle of60 ms is applied to each of the objects/obstructions F41 of FIG. 10. Afilter cycle of 100 ms is applied to each of the objects/obstructionsF42. With this arrangement, information can be provided to the user withthe amount of data within the certain period, inhibited for theobjects/obstructions F42 having low priority in comparison to theobjects/obstructions F41 having high priority.

Next, an exemplary periphery-information-based data-to-be-filtered list,will be described with FIG. 15. The periphery-information-baseddata-to-be-filtered list of FIG. 15 also includes vehicle peripheryinformation object classification similar to that of theperiphery-information-based filter cycle list of FIG. 14. Here,descriptions to be transmitted in default and descriptions to betransmitted after filtering, are defined. Basically, the descriptions tobe transmitted in the default are set larger in quantity than thedescriptions to be transmitted after the filtering, and the descriptionsto be transmitted in the default are allocated to the information in thetravelable region adjacent periphery information list. In contrast, thedescriptions to be transmitted after the filtering are allocated to theinformation-to-be-filtered list being the object of which the data to betransmitted is desirably reduced, so that the descriptions to betransmitted are decimated and the amount of data is inhibited. Forexample, exemplarily with the width of the object in the peripherythree-dimensional object, width data for each of theobjects/obstructions F41 of FIG. 10, is transmitted in accordance withthe descriptions to be transmitted in the default. Width data for eachof the objects/obstructions F42 is not transmitted in accordance withthe descriptions to be transmitted after the filtering. With thisarrangement, information can be provided to the user with the amount ofdata inhibited for the objects/obstructions F42 having the low priorityin comparison to the objects/obstructions F41 having the high priority.The method of reducing the amount of data to be transmitted, with thedescriptions themselves decimated, has been described with the exemplaryperiphery-information-based data-to-be-filtered list of FIG. 15, but amethod of compressing and transmitting data may be used.

As illustrated in the travelable region adjacency information scene 1 ofFIG. 10, a region F45 being the travelable region on the periphery ofthe vehicle, the region F40 being a region adjacent to the travelableregion, and the other region may be prioritized, and then the filterparameter may be calculated with the priority determined for eachregion. For example, the region F45 being the travelable region on theperiphery of the vehicle is set to high priority, the region F40 beingthe region adjacent to the travelable region is set to medium priority,and the other region is set to low priority. In this case, the filterparameter to the respective different objects/obstructions belonging tothe regions, may be varied in accordance with priority. Exemplarily withthe periphery-information-based filter cycle list of FIG. 14, two cyclesof the default cycle and the filter cycle are defined in FIG. 14. In acase where priority is used, a filter cycle having high priority, afilter cycle having medium priority, and a filter cycle having lowpriority are individually defined, and then a transmission cycle havinga faster value is set to each cycle in order of priority. Similarly,information to be reduced is individually defined based on priority forthe periphery-information-based data-to-be-filtered list of FIG. 15.

Next, an exemplary flowchart of filter parameter calculation ofcalculating the filter parameter output from the filter parameterintegration unit 33, will be described with FIG. 16. First, theinformation-to-be-filtered list is acquired at S21. Next, one piece ofobject information is selected from the information-to-be-filtered listthat has been acquired, at S22. It is checked whether the objectclassification in the selected information has been registered in theperiphery-information-based filter cycle list of FIG. 14, at S23. In theexample of FIG. 14, examples of the object classification include theperiphery three-dimensional object and the periphery road surfaceinformation. In a case where no registration has been made, processingof updating the filter parameter of the selected object information, isskipped. In a case where the registration has been made, a filter cyclecorresponding to each description of the selected object, is saved inthe filter parameter at S24. Here, each description indicates the objectID or relative position of the object, the lane ID or laneclassification of the lane marker in FIG. 14. Next, it is checkedwhether the selected object classification has been registered in theperiphery-information-based data-to-be-filtered list of FIG. 15, at S25.In a case where no registration has been made, the processing ofupdating the filter parameter of the selected object information, isskipped. In a case where the registration has been made, the descriptionto be transmitted after the filtering corresponding to each descriptionof the selected object, is saved in the filter parameter at S26. Next,it is determined whether all pieces of object information have beenselected, at S27. In a case where the selection has not been completed,the processing is repeatedly performed from S22 to S26. In a case wherethe selection has been completed, the processing of calculating thefilter parameter is completed.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the filter parameter calculated in theflowchart of FIG. 16 is output to the output data filter unit 11. Theoutput data filter unit 11 determines whether the object for each pieceof vehicle periphery information output from the data integration unit09, has been registered in the filter parameter. The data is reducedwith the filter parameter for the object that has been registered, andthe data is transmitted with the default set for the object that has notbeen registered.

The effect of the present invention will be described with thecomparison between congested traveling and normal traveling of FIG. 17.FIG. 17 (a) illustrates the congested traveling and FIG. 17 (b)illustrates the normal traveling. The traveling is performed keeping adegree of inter-vehicular distance to a vehicle present ahead of thevehicle in the normal traveling of FIG. 17 (b) in comparison to thecongested traveling. Thus, when the flowchart illustrated in FIG. 6 isused, the travelable region F83 in the normal traveling, expands as theinter-vehicular distance lengthens. Therefore, the region of thetravelable region F83 in the normal traveling, occupies a large part ofa recognition region F82 of the external environment recognition sensorso that a region F84 to be filtered ahead of the vehicle, narrows andobjects/obstructions to be filtered are limited. Note that, theinter-vehicular distance between objects/obstructions is originallywide, and thus the amount of data to be provided is not enormous. Incontrast, in the congested traveling of FIG. 17 (a), a plurality ofvehicles ahead of the vehicle, travels at low speed keeping narrowinter-vehicular distances, and thus the range of the travelable regionF80 narrows. In comparison to the normal traveling, the region of thetravelable region F80 is merely a part of the recognition region F82 ofthe external environment recognition sensor, and thus a region F81 to befiltered ahead of the vehicle more expands than in the normal traveling.As a result, the number of vehicles detected by the external environmentrecognition sensor may increase, and thus the amount of information tobe provided increases in the conventional processing. According to thepresent invention, the filter processing is performed to theobjects/obstructions included in the region F81 to be filtered so thatthe amount of data to be provided can be reduced. Therefore, even in astate where the external environment recognition sensor can detect alarge number of vehicles as in the congested traveling, the load on thenetwork due to the information provision, can be smoothed. Theprocessing load on the information acquisition side can be reduced.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST

-   01 vehicle periphery information management device-   02 vehicle behavior recognition sensor-   03 external environment recognition sensor-   04 map-   05 GPS-   06 automatic drive control ECU-   07 actuation ECU-   08 display ECU-   09 data integration unit (data acquisition unit)-   10 filter parameter determination unit-   11 output data filter unit-   12 input communication network-   13 output communication network-   14 data selection unit

The invention claimed is:
 1. A vehicle periphery information managementdevice comprising: a data acquisition unit configured to acquire aplurality of pieces of external environment information data around avehicle; and a data selection unit configured to select a part of theplurality of pieces of external environment information data and outputthe selected data to the outside, wherein the data selection unit isconfigured to recognize from the external environment information data atravelable region in which the vehicle travels, and delete informationon a region other than the travelable region, wherein the externalenvironment information data includes first information on apredetermined region ahead of the vehicle, and second information on aregion outside the predetermined region, the part of the information tobe deleted is determined on the basis of low priority information havinglower priority as information from a safety aspect than a predeterminedvalue, the low priority information is information on an object thatcannot collide with the vehicle, the low priority information isobtained by removing from the external environment information datainformation on an object that can enter the travelable region, and thedeleting includes setting some transmission cycles to be longer than adefault value on the basis of the low priority information.
 2. Thevehicle periphery information management device according to claim 1,wherein deleting includes decimating a part of the information to betransmitted on the basis of the low priority information.
 3. The vehicleperiphery information management device according to claim 1, whereindeleting includes compressing a part of the information to betransmitted on the basis of the low priority information.
 4. The vehicleperiphery information management device according to claim 3, furthercomprising: a coordinate conversion processing unit configured tointegrate coordinate systems of the plurality of pieces of externalenvironment information data, wherein the data selection unit isconfigured to recognize the travelable region from the externalenvironment information data with the integrated coordinate systems. 5.The vehicle periphery information management device according to claim4, further comprising: a synchronization processing unit configured tosynchronize the acquisition times of the plurality of pieces of externalenvironment information data, wherein the data selection unit isconfigured to recognize the travelable region from the synchronizedexternal environment information data.
 6. The vehicle peripheryinformation management device according to claim 5, further comprising:a grouping processing unit configured to perform, for identical objectsamong the plurality of pieces of external environment information data,grouping of the objects, wherein the data selection unit is configuredto recognize the travelable region from the external environmentinformation data for which the grouping has been performed.
 7. Thevehicle periphery information management device according to claim 6,further comprising: a tracking processing unit configured to perform,for identical objects among the plurality of pieces of externalenvironment information data, tracking processing on the objects,wherein the data selection unit is configured to recognize thetravelable region from the external environment information data forwhich the tracking processing has been performed.